Term Limits ~ Vince Flynn

Congressman Michael O’Rourke is a newly-elected representative of Minnesota. He goes into politics to change the way things are done in D.C. On the eve of a big vote, three statesmen are murdered by assassins and O’Rourke soon finds himself thick in the plot. The assassins are revolutionaries that have ideas about Washington similar to O’Rourke, but with a whole different plan to promote change.

This book has the same characterization of politicians as I do, they are untrustworthy, lying, cheating, power-hungry, megalomaniacs. This book was published in 1998, it was written the year I got married, 1997. The scary part? Government hasn’t changed a bit. This is a work of fiction but reads like it isn’t because of the natural distrust that the average American has for our political leaders.

Term Limits doesn’t leave you guessing as to who the villain is. It’s obvious from the get-go. The beauty of it is how, if you choose to, you can look deeper. Who do you really identify with in the story, if anyone at all? I also liked that, even though the two-party system is mentioned, Flynn never mentions the political party of any of the characters. You are left to make your own assumptions. Frankly, that they are both the same. Party no longer really matters, they both want the same thing, power and more of it.

Now for a personal story, consider this my (at one time a long time ago) three degrees of separation from Mr. Vince Flynn. I heard of Flynn when he was a nobody. My husband, Matt, and I worked with a college friend of his, we’ll call her Barb because I am not in contact with her anymore and don’t have permission to use her real name. Barb and Vince had maintained a good friendship and my husband and I talked to Barb frequently. She knew that we were avid readers and told us about her good friend, Vince.A few weeks later she told us about his book, saying that it was a political book. She gave us a copy from him, personally signed. My husband read the book right away and liked it. I, however, wasn’t interested in the slightest in a political book. So I, being a complete fool, didn’t read it until now, sixteen years and five moves later. If I had known it was a crime drama as much as a political thriller, I probably would have read it, but I didn’t know. Hindsight and all that.